Indianapolis: Crime in 2013

Editor’s Note: The following originally appeared as the introduction to IM‘s Crime Issue in March 2013. As of December 2013, Marion County had 116 homicides on the year—the highest total since 2006.Consider this: In Indianapolis, your likelihood of falling prey to violent crime is more than 25 percent greater than it was in 2000. Your chances of being hit by property crime increased by nearly half. Overall, the probability that you will be a victim of some kind is 1 in 15. This according to FBI uniform crime reporting from 2011 (when aggravated assault was nearly 40 percent more common here than it was in Chicago, and burglaries were close to twice as frequent). The odds of you being subjected to violent crime were greater than if you lived in Gary. For every type of crime tracked by the FBI, you would have been safer living in New York City or Los Angeles.
Figures from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, compiled from 2012 preliminary incident reports, are a mixed bag. Although rape and homicide held steady over the previous year, robbery and aggravated assault—violent crimes that affect Indy residents in far greater numbers—were up by 3 and 11 percent.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story. Facts on the ground make us fear that crime is simply running amok, particularly in some of the city’s destination neighborhoods and at showcase attractions. Muggings and assaults have been a buzzkill for Broad Ripple nightlife and have made northsiders rethink those evening jogs on the Monon Trail. Downtown, it seems mayhem might erupt on any given day—such as last year, when one shooting wounded five teenagers, or this past January, when a fight at Circle Centre led to gunfire that damaged a skywalk connected to the Indiana Convention Center. The IMPD is even posting officers with metal detectors outside the mall’s doors. A string of news-making fires, including the shocking Richmond Hill explosion, seem to bear out the 6 percent jump in arson reports citywide.
None of us is immune, not even the wealthy, famous, or otherwise noteworthy: Last year, Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully was attacked on Monument Circle, and Colts star Reggie Wayne had his car stolen from the downtown Westin hotel. Nor are burbs and high-rent neighborhoods: The Johnson County home of prominent developer Paul Kite was burglarized, and jeweler Gary Thrapp was shot during a home invasion at his residence near Keystone at the Crossing.
Compounding our feelings of insecurity is this: While the vast majority of men and women charged with keeping us safe do just that, last year too many of them faced charges, with police officers falling on the wrong end of at least five DWIs, a domestic battery, and a violent hostage standoff—and that’s just the ones we know of. The IMPD’s mishandling of evidence in the David Bisard drunk-driving case mired the department in controversy and lost the old chief his job. How can they keep order in Indianapolis, we wonder, when they can’t even keep order in their own house?
Crime, then, has emerged as one of the most critical and challenging issues facing Indianapolis, on par with failing public schools, urban blight, and municipal budget shortfalls. Indeed, you could argue—and we do—that crime is an aggravating factor in all of the above.In for Questioning: Q&A with Public Safety Director Troy RiggsThe Undercover Files: Reports from Local Vice, Child-Exploitation, Narcotics, and White-Collar Crime SquadsMean Streets: Crime in My Indy NeighborhoodScoundrels and Scandals: Indy’s 10 Most Notorious Criminals of All TimeCrime Fiction: Novel Excerpt from Hoosier Grit-Lit Author Frank Bill

Since first joining Indianapolis Monthly in 2000, West has written about a wide range of subjects including crime, history, arts and entertainment, pop culture, politics, and food. His feature stories have twice been noted in the Best American Sports Writing anthology and have received top honors from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. “The Collapse,” West’s account of the 2011 Indiana State Fair tragedy, was a 2013 National City and Regional Magazine Awards finalist in the category of Best Reporting. He lives on the near-east side.

Receive more stories like this in your inbox.

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Related

Read More

Catching The Couple Who Conned Amazon

Prime suspects.

Read More

The Immaculate Deception

How a Zionsville doctor secretly used his own sperm to impregnate more than 50 fertility patients.

Read More

Halfway Across: The Delphi Murders

Restoration of the historic trestle where the murders occurred is underway. Will resolution follow?

Read More

Next In Line: The Burger Chef Murders

For people living in Indianapolis in 1978, the year must have seemed like the last they’d ever see.